Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
But what a reader brings to a story or hopes to get from it is his responsibility; it's not the responsibility of a story to provide them; the story's only responsibility is to itself.
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Er...em. I can't speak to the
raison d'être of the story-personified (or is that anthropomorphized?) Maybe said story needs to reflect on its role in story-society, or consult with it's story-priest or story-rabbi.
However, this being the WRITER'S corner, as opposed to the STORY'S corner, I think the WRITER has a responsibility to strive for excellence in the craft.
The story may or may not have a responsibility to itself, but I think we as writers have a responsibility to the story to tell it well. And I'd go so far to say that keeping the reader in mind is a key part of faithfully executing on that responsibility, so in that sense we have responsibility to the reader as well. And that need have nothing to do with making a living.
I think this is true in fiction, and even more important in non-fiction. Whatever the message is--story, instruction, argument, business case-- writers have a responsibility to the message and to the reader, whether that reader be the general public or no one but the writer themselves.
Now, I'm assuming we mean "writer" as in one who practices the art and craft, not just as in one who has achieved first grade literacy and can operate a pencil or keyboard.
So, yeah, get the homophones right.
(Or is it 'write'?)